In today’s Transformer, I wrote about the very scary disconnect I felt between the conversations I was having with people like @jachiam0 and @jackclarkSF at The Curve, and the way the wider world talks about AI.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Good post. I do think there was a pretty broad range even among people at the conference regarding this though. several panelists and speakers seemed to be more concerned with copyright, privacy, and other near-term or last war concerns. rather than appreciating the exponential

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Do you know if any of the talks were recorded to share online? I would be interested in watching Jack Clark's presentation

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF facts

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF The disconnect is jarring, I feel it too

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF It’s only “very scary” if you believe the people in the labs, and I see no reason to trust them more than other expert and more objective observers.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF I've seen 3-4 separate posts/blogs about The Curve, and about the only thing they agree on is that everyone is having different conversations.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF What a shit species this all supposes we are, like a Star Trek episode where they touch down on this one planet who'd created a superintelligence that could solve their every problem but their mode of accumulation & distribution is so fucked up they destroy themselves instead

What happens if the AI technology fulfills its promise will depend on what the promise is. Is it to make tech-billionaires into trillionaires and everyone else a beggar living on Universal Basic Income? That would be a terrible outcome. The promise of AI should be to make eveyone financially independent. Here is how it is possible: savetheplanetfoundation.com

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF You know those researchers have equity in these companies too right? They’re influenced by the same incentive structures as the CEO hype men.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Personally, I'm mostly worried about our species surviving an AI boom. My main difference with the people who are working on AI is that I'll bear relatively little responsibility for the Apocalypse. Most people won't. We're just clueless victims.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF I feel like something close to both an AI market crash, or at least a consolidation, and an AI boom, are both possible and are probably likely. Companies will be winnowed out at some point; not all will survive. But an AI boom is also coming, barring black/gray swans.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF The bubble is a very common theme, GPT-5: copilot.microsoft.com/shares/QxATBWP…

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF AI might as well be the missing piece of the puzzle for a democracy in the information age to stop turning itself into a representative kleptocracy.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF It seems that the world that AGI promised is collapsing in favor of a much more robust secondary Ai wave which will see specialization overtake generalization as the dominant paradigm. That’s the scary one.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF normies super worried about a bubble

One of my concerns is, people are lazy and when relieved of work because AI does the job and pays us. What happens to their mental health? If you remove a sense of purpose and leave a void, what happens? 👀 Where does society go from there? And another worry. If we create a BAD super intelligence, are we intelligent enough to defeat it? That's a bigger concern of mine because I don't believe we would be. It's whole thing is that it's capable of being more intelligent. So even in conflict it would win. And that is concerning. The idea the tool could decide one day it's not the tool but you are. 👀

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Yeah sounds familiar to a book never read but heard it a must read. Title Atlas Shrugged. (No concept of the book or read words) “Atlas Shrugged”means something else likely now more measurable “and so hold the weight of the world and shrug your shoulder just a bit” Atlas is

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF This is Claude' view on misaligned concerns

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Insightful post, my guess is both. I’d short hardware/SaaS and get ready for selling software up front again.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Well, if we get AGI/Recursive self improvement/even better than today LLM models, in the short term this will destroy jobs, tank the economy and pop AI funding. Or it’s a bubble for sure. Either way, this AI bubble will pop.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Totally get that

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Why wouldn't democracy survive an AI boom? Too much intelligence at the center that can allocate resources better? Perhaps even in abundant exuberance there's still a need for a purpose driven life...Republic just serves to solve a different set of inter-intra personal problems.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF I don’t think there are necessarily two camps. I’ve had substantive conversations just this week about both.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF there's many groups, not two.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF Wow.

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF You are comically silly. AI is 90% cheating at school/work and sick pervbots

@ShakeelHashim @jachiam0 @jackclarkSF It won't. Not because it can't but because they can't deliver. cherokeeschill.com/2025/10/10/enr…